


It's 2:30 in the Morning

by sleeplittlechild



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Post Ep. 99
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23636086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeplittlechild/pseuds/sleeplittlechild
Summary: What happens as the Mighty Nein, after protecting their ship and raising their captain, bed down for the night.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76





	It's 2:30 in the Morning

Nott sleeps on his chest that night.

Fjord knows he should be calling her “Veth” now that she’s a halfling, but it doesn’t change the fact that  _ she _ is  _ sleeping _ on  _ his  _ chest.

They gather in the lower quarters - all tight and snug like they were after defeating Lorenzo. Beau and Yasha navigate Fjord to the bed, with pointed glares that insist he take it for the night. Caleb strings along his silver thread as Caduceus and Jester talk about the merits of making a dummy Fjord for the Captain’s Quarters. Gallan pops in at multiple times to ask about all the...extensive damage to be repaired. (Jester pointedly looks away).

And suddenly, Nott is tumbling onto the bed. Fjord is sure she’s going to insist on sharing, maybe shove him into sleeping against the wall. Instead she crawls on top of him and curls up, like he’s seen her do in Caleb’s arms next to Frumpkin.

He goes still, more than anything else. Expectations run through his head and just as fast, they’re denied. He expects her to make some joke, some quip, some insult, but it’s only her steady breathing not far from his face that lets Fjord know she hasn’t drifted off inhumanely (in-humanoid-ly?) fast. He expects the sudden weight, after waking up to being stabbed, to send a shiver down his spine. To make his breathing quicker, to make his throat close up in memory. It feels...nice. He’s solid, the weight makes him feel solid. He can feel her on top of him each time he breathes clean and clear - Fjord feels  _ alive _ .

He expects it to hurt, being right on top of the wound where, apparently, he’s been hiding an artifact of death and destruction that he hadn’t known he carried. She makes him feel whole.

“Don’t die.”

The Nein are bustling with plan-making and usual bedtime chatter, but Fjord still manages to hear her. It rattles him and...he ends up laughing. His one hand pats her on the back once, twice. He feels it reverberate through her and into his stomach. He leaves his hand on her back.

“I don’t plan to, Nott.”

Nott shimmies a little, like she’s making herself more comfortable. Fjord rubs his thumb up and down and waits. He smiles at her, though she can’t see it. Nott yawns and stills.

“Good.” She says. Everyone else is starting to bed down. “You still have to teach me to swim.”

=====/////\\\\\\\\\=====

Beau stretches her legs out in front of her, just barely managing to position them between Caleb’s casting circle and Jester’s haversack. It’d been a while since they’d worked out how each to do their bedtime rituals inside the Dome, but old habits didn’t take long to fall back on. She holds the stretch and begins counting in her head.  _ One, two, three… _   
  


When Beau straightened back up, Jester had emptied out her haversack across Beau’ legs. While also not an unusual sight, the veracity that Jester was doing it was a little alarming. Usually when Jester was spreading her things on Beau’s legs, it was strategically done. Like a little prank where Beau had to balance stale cupcakes and dick statues down her spine. Looking down Jester was just piling object after object out of the Haversack and down on any empty spot she could see at the moment.

Straightening further, Beau saw Caduceus was doing the same at her left.

“I...I only have one more diamond left. A big one, but there’s only one. My other one - it’s too small, I don’t think it would work.”

“Same. I only have one.”

“But! But maybe - maybe it doesn’t have to be diamonds. I’m sure - I’m sure! I have some other gems here. I know - I just have to find them.”

“Jester - Jester.” Caduceus reached out and grasped Jester’s white-knuckled grip on the haversack. “We both know, it has to be diamond. And we only have two.”

“But if we only have two then that means...that means that the next...next time…”

“We have two. At least we have two.”

Jester’s lip wobbled. Beau saw her deflate, shoulders drop as she nodded. “Yeah.” 

“And at least we each have one.” Caduceus squeezed her hand and slowly let go. Beau watched Veth scoot behind Jester to crawl into the bed beside Fjord. The sounds of Gallan outside the room filled the silence.

“I’m sorry, I...I waited, like I did. I just - I had to be sure. It just...it looked like they were after something…” Beau hadn’t heard Caduceus speak so low, so quietly. Not since they had lost Yasha in the tomb.

“No, no, no, no.” Jester insisted, in her usual way. She sniffled and wiped her arm across her nose. “No, it’s good that you checked. And...and you  _ should’ve _ saved Fjord. You’re...you’re the Wildmother bros.” Jester smiled, weak and cracked between the tear streaks.

Caduceus for once didn’t smile back. “But you…”

Jester interrupted, looking at neither Caduceus nor Beau nor at any of the Nein. “And I was able to save Orly because, y’know, that’s what we  _ do _ as the Clerics. We save them.”

“Oh Jester.” Beau leaned forward, ignoring the papers and fabric and dick statues that tumbled to the ground, and pulled Jester into a hug as the tiefling’s voice began to crack. Jester leaned her head against Beau’s shoulder. Beau felt her shake, somewhere between trying not to cry and not trying very hard.

“Oh.” Beau turned to Caduceus. With his long face and big eyes, with all the calm he usually exuded, Beau actually found it very easy to see the exhaustion and fear in his face. She gave him a strained smile and opened up her other arm to him.

Caduceus was never one to say no to a hug.

Jester cried into her right shoulder and Beau was certain if she looked down she’d see tears on Caduceus face on her left. But she didn’t. She trailed her fingers through their hair and held them tight to her.

“You’re our clerics. You save us. We’ll be safe, we’ll look after each other, and we’ll be fine. Because of you.” She whispered.

=====/////\\\\\\\\\=====

Yasha woke up, her back propped up against the door of the room, just her knees and below sticking inside the Dome, to the furious sound of pages turning and the softest “Ow.”

Her eyes adjusted to the dark easily, especially when she saw a small spark of light crackle between somebody’s fingers right before another “Ow.”

Caleb.

She watched him make a series of gestures, that same spark gathering between his fingers before fizzling out with another “Ow.” And then Caleb would do it again, to the same effect.

“If that hurts you, you probably shouldn’t do it.”

Caleb startled in her direction. He probably had not expected her to be awake. “Oh. I’m sorry - was I keeping you?”

“No, I just woke up.” Yasha took a listen outside the door - all was quiet. She scooted inside the Dome to speak beside him. “What’re you still doing up?”

Caleb looked away from her down to his spellbook in his lap. “I’m...I’m working on a new spell. A better spell - a better dome. Some place we can go and only us and nobody will be able to get inside and kill us in the night and...and I’ve almost got it. I know I’ve almost got it. I’m just...I’m working out the kinks.”

Yasha looked down at his hands on top of the pages. “The kinks seem to be hurting you.”

Caleb quirked his lips one way and then the other. “This magic is a little beyond me, I admit.” He said, after a moment.

Yasha nodded along. The waves of the water outside the ship nodded along as well. Yasha reached out to his hands, letting what little healing she knew stop the hurting.

Caleb snatched his hands back like they’d been burnt. Yasha heard him choke out a swear. “Am I the  _ only _ one who can’t heal?” He snapped.

Yasha furrowed her brow. “Uhm...I, I do not think so. Nott can’t, and Beau - ”

“I can summon giant balls of fire and turn into fantastic beasts and  _ fly _ but I can’t. Fucking. Heal.” He gritted, like he was pushing those words out of his stomach. “All this studying, all my years and in the moment that matters, it is worth  _ nichts _ .”

Yasha pursed her lips. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could do that would wipe this guilt her friend felt inside of himself. He had seen Fjord fall and there was nothing he could have done. He could’ve been faster, could’ve learned this spell sooner, could’ve been more powerful months before he’d named them The Mighty Nein - but he wasn’t and Fjord had died and that was the truth of it all.

“It wasn’t your fault.” She said instead.

Caleb looked up at her.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Yasha repeated. “Fjord died because of those fish people things. And we killed them. You killed one and I killed one. I...I don’t remember who killed the third, but they’re dead. And we’re all still here. It feels impossible, but...we’re the Mighty Nein.”

Caleb huffed out a breath - not his usual laugh when Yasha said something funny. But this also wasn’t the usual conversation for laughing. The tears in his eyes seemed to dry, so…

“You need to rest, Caleb.” Yasha gently closed his book. As gently as when she would close her own journal. “It will still be there tomorrow.”

Caleb had a feeling Yasha wasn’t talking about Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, but he nodded all the same. With his books in his holster and Frumpkin crawling up his chest, Caleb laid down against Yasha’s legs for a morning of slumber. (It was 7 in the morning.)


End file.
